Now People Are Speculating If Will Byers on ‘Stranger Things’ Will Come out Gay | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's note: This informational nugget was sent to me by Ben Shapiro, who represents the Daily Wire, and since this is one of the most topical news events, it should be published on BCN.

    The author of this post is Paul Bois.

"It's not my fault you don't like girls."
    After going wild for the addition of the lesbian character Robin, some fans of the hit Netflix show "Stranger Things" now wonder if perhaps the character Will Byers (played by Noah Schnapp) will have a coming out episode sometime in the near future.

    "The Netflix series, which premiered its third season on the streaming platform last Friday, might be adding another LGBTQ+ character to the mix in the future," reports Out.

    The speculation about the character's queer sexuality originated from a moment in season 3 when Finn Wolfhard's character Mike mentions that he doesn't like girls.

    "One of the plotlines on the new season involves Will Byers, played by 14-year-old Noah Schnapp, feeling alienated from his friends as they've all started making out with girls and he just wants to play 'Dungeons & Dragons,' Out continued. "His frustrations come to a head in a scene with Finn Wolfhard's Mike Wheeler, who tells Will, 'it's not my fault you don't like girls.' While nothing has been confirmed, some viewers believe that this exchange - along with Will's hurt reaction to Mike's words - serves as foreshadowing for Will coming out as gay or bi or queer or whatever in some future season."

    That speculation further increased when actor Noah Schnapp said in an interview with The Wrap that Will's sexuality could be open to "interpretation."

    "It's really up to interpretation," Schnapp said. "While all the characters were out developing and growing up, Will was in the Upside Down and he was alone there, not interacting with or connected to his friends or the rest of the world. And when he got back, he expected everything to just go back to how it was before, how it was when he was normal and when he was a kid and he wanted to go back to the basement and play D&D."

    "All his friends have girlfriends and they're out dating, and he just wants to have fun with his friends," he continued. "You see in Episode 3, he just wants to play D&D in the basement, and now all of his friends have girlfriends and they are dating. And it's kind of, when you hear Mike say that line, it's really up to the audience to interpret it. I kind of just interpret it like he's not ready to grow up and he doesn't really want to move on to dating and relationships yet. He still wants to be a kid and play in the basement like he did in old times."

    The hit Netflix show has not actually faced much criticism from the LGBT community in the past for not including more characters of different sexual persuasions. As season 2 premiered in 2017, The Advocate actually praised the show for its depictions of homophobia and even said that the principal characters were all "queer in some fashion."

    "All of the young protagonists are queer in some fashion, because they are outsiders who defy heteronormativity," said Daniel Reynolds of The Advocate. "Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) is the clearest allegory of a queer character. A gender-nonconforming child with supernatural abilities, she escapes a government institution and endures homelessness before discovering a found family with these other young folks. Her journey has resonated with many LGBT viewers."